My main issue - at this point, with Palin.

Yeah - so her 17 year old daughter is having a baby, probably because Ms Palin taught her daughter abstinence only, which is the educational model Ms Palin supported in Alaska... now that we're over that, can we discuss the way she told the world about it???

The McCain campaign has said they knew about Bristol's pregnancy when they chose her mother and the only reason Sarah Palin chose to share it on Monday was to refute the "liberal blogger" rumors that Trig was actually Bristol's child.

So - that makes Sarah Palin not only an incredibly selfish mother, but also an easily manipulatable and thin skinned politician. Are we really suppose to believe that she sacrificed her 17 year old daughter (who must already be going through a lot mentally and physically) to the American Media (and every Anne Coulter wanna-be sitting at home), just so half a dozen people on the web would stop challenging her word that Trig was her child??? Trig's too young to even know what's going on - and if he's really her child there should be a couple pages of medical records that could quickly set everything straight...

I mean really???

You don't react to those sorts of rumors, and particularly not in a way that subjects your daughter (someone she should want to be protecting with a thick cloak of privacy right about now) to a lot of negative commentary.

I mean the other issue is when she thought she was going to tell us... when the baby popped out??? I think a big sign that Ms Palin isn't ready for the rigours of national politics, is that she didn't tell anyone in the state of Alaska she was preggers with Trig till she was 2 months away from delivery... and I realize, for a woman her age, the likihood of a miscarriage and other complications were a lot higher, but that's the sort of thing that would never fly on the national stage, those are the sorts of things that you have to talk about with people - not because it's going to effect anything, just simply because major life events, even of a personal nature, have to get shared when you're a politician so that people don't think you're hiding stuff (or trying to call your daughter's baby your own...). The only reason those rumors could so easily gain so much ground is because of the odd way she delt with her pregnancy with Trig.

If she was going to tell us about Bristol's pregnancy, she should have done it when she made her initial speach, she walked on stage with her family and introduced them, except she should have said something like this -

"My son Track is not here, he's off training for deployment to Iraq in September. This is my youngest daughter Piper, and next, Willow, and our eldest daughter Bristol. She's holding our youngest child Trig - I've had her helping me with Trig quite a bit, to set a good example for her and help her learn as much as possible about dealing with new-borns, as she's expecting her first child in December. And speaking of new additions to our family, I'd like you to meet my soon-to-be son-in-law Levi, who's here tonight in the audience, to support Bristol and their baby. While I know my Bristol will be growing up even faster than we ever imagined, my husband Todd and I know the importance of giving them our full love and support while they start their new family together. We know the difference a strong and caring family makes in the lives of children and how hard families, not just ours, all over this country are dealing, right now, with challenges they never throught they would have to face, and that's why I'm so proud to run for Vice President of this grest country, because I believe I am the right person to work with John McCain to help struggling families across our nation prosper and grow stronger! (continue random nomination drivel here...)"


Bam - nothing more to be said. And nobody could run around with that.

However - I do appreciate how well it worked this way, where the conservative women rallied around her in the face of little investigation stuff, and declared their love for her, so that when she released the info about her daughter, all they could do was say that it doesn't change anything and any one who speaks ill of the girl or her mother is heartless and liberal... whereas if they'd had the info about the daughter to start with they might have been a bit less eager to take Sarah into their fold.

So it's sort of a toss up - but I really can't believe she let it all slip this way just to refute a couple bloggers... if that's really the truth behind their decision to release the information, Ms Palin is a pretty heartless mother and unthoughtful politician.


We won't even get into the fact that Sarah and Todd Palin referred to their daughter's "choice" to keep the baby and marry the father, and unless I hear a little more information about how it all went down, I'm not inclined to believe that Miss Bristol Palin had one tiny bit of choice when it came to what was going to happen to her baby or herself and her future. Maybe Levi proposed to her before they ever told either sets of parents, maybe they're totally in love and got pregnant on purpose, maybe - but until we get more details, that's a pretty hard situation to believe.

And if the right is all about loving, caring families, which is what I presume "Family Values" is all about, then why are they so eager and excited to force young mothers into marrying the fathers of their children... is that really the way to start a loving and caring family... that seems like just about the worst reason in the world to get married (getting preggers) - and I can't believe anyone who supports strong families would support such a step. (Yeah, I realize that Sarah and Todd Palin had Track a mere 8 months after they eloped, so Bristol's just following family tradition, albeit a few years early... and Sarah and Todd and many other people who got married in similar manners had very long marriages, so I shouldn't knock all shot-gun weddings... but...really).